Friction.Friction is of course head of Shogun Audio, the label which reads like a who’s who of diverse, ice-cold D&B: Alix Perez, Icicle, Rockwell and of course Friction himself. To name a few. Always delivering the goods without breaking a sweat, that’s how Friction & the label come across.So, where to start? Those rammed nights at Cable (and The End before that) may be a good place to start.

Damian Bennett: What is it about a Shogun night? They are always roadblocked, always ridiculously busy. I notice you feature Cable in your latest video too, to great effect.How did they get this way?

Friction: I’ll be honest with you: we were very lucky in a way. I’ve always been quite an ambitious person. When I started the label, I got the label rolling and said “We need to do nights & we need to do a night in London’, it was an important thing. My agent helped me and we got our first ever shows at The End. Which is like ‘Wow’. We couldn’t have had a better venue to start our own D&B night…

DB: I remember those flyers very clearly from the The End era, and the lineups.

F: That really got us rolling, you can’t get any better than that. It set us up really well, we’ve always had a really strong presence in London. The team works hard, they have to work hard to get the events at the level that they are.

DB: How’s London changed? I mean The End closed, Matter closed, that time a few years back… it was a scary time once and seemed like people maybe weren’t hitting places like they were before. How’s it changed since?

F: Things have changed, in some ways it’s been diluted by dubstep, in some areas D&B is very strong. I’m turning up at places and it’s busy, people are having a good time. I think it’s strong. I get annoyed when I see people distancing themselves from D&B, maybe ‘cos something else’s come into fashion.I’m passionate about the music and I want to see it do well.

DB: It’s worldwide. I hear of Shogun nights all over that are crazy.

F: The first Australian tour was amazingly successful, the vibe, the clubs… that’s what we’re about, getting the Shogun name out there.

DB: You mention a team… Goldie will talk about Headz like it’s a family. It’s nothing new of course: we traditionally had the same thing with Full Cycle for example. But is that how you see Shogun, as a family?

F: You build up a team, you work with people who are close to you and you come to rely on. We’re very lucky, even when it comes to the artists, I make a point of having a good laugh with the artists, we get on, it works out, we really have a family vibe… some people just say that, we really do.

DB: It’s interesting because you’re all quite different. If I said to someone ‘Check out a Shogun night’ they may say ‘What’s it sound like, what style?’… you have Alix Perez, Icicle, Rockwell, yourself, it’s very broad and quite ranging. So what’s the ‘x factor’ when you get sent stuff or when someone new comes along… what makes them a Shogun artist?

F: Shogun was originally about tracks I felt, there was no thought about how we’d market it and so on. But I wanted it to be different. I wasn’t thinking about A&R, it was more simply “I like that, I’m putting it out.” As time’s gone on, I’m still releasing music that I like but we’re entering this phase of the label now where we’ve jumped up a level. We’re now releasing stuff we can get out to a bigger audience. We want to get more of a fanbase but at the same the Alixs, the Rockwells, the Icicles… I’ve said to them that I don’t want them to change the sound we’re making or compromise in any way…

DB: The uncompromising aspect shines through, always has.

F: What was important to me was, rather than trying to compromise the artist so we’d get more listeners, I needed to find acts that can smash it on the dancefloor, they can make what they want and not change anything. You get some guys who are not writing the music that they want to write. The label, for some reason, needs something that does this or does that. That’s the beauty of this label, that we’ve entered this multi-style, multi-genre phase, we’re releasing great electronic music.

DB: It appeals to a lot of people too who are new to the music too as it’s not one thing, it’s a lot to explore and is gonna hit them squarely across the face. Any new artists you’ve got your eye on btw?

F: I have to be careful not patronise anyone, saying that they ‘may be Shogun artists of the future’ ha ha, but I’ve got to keep my cards close to my chest! Technicolour and Komatic are worth checking out. They’re writing the sort of stuff I was releasing early on in Shogun days. I love soulful D&B with a little bit of aggression to it. That’s also why I’m such a dBridge fan, I’m a stalker ha ha. He basically started that LFO-y, sort of dirty bassline sort of thing. He started many trends in D&B.

DB: Speaking of artistry, people know you as a DJ but what about the stuff you want to get out there as an artist yourself? I’m loving ‘Flip The Page’…

F: I’m just trying to produce, trying to make whatever’s in my mind to make, whether it’s s dancefloor tune or… look, trust me: I’ve got some stuff that is Fucked Up. 4 in the morning at 150bpm. I’m not a musical snob in any way. You can play me an Alix Perez tune and I’ll be all over it but then you can play me a Camo and Krooked tune and I’ll be all over that in a different way. I love music for the emotions that it gives to you. If I’m playing at a festival to 5000 people and I play a Prototypes tune… I love it, I love the energy. But then I could be listening to Alix Perez sitting at home or at an airport on my own, zoning out. Just the different emotions and that’s what I want to reflect.When I do finish an album it’s gonna be very across the board.

DB: Interesting point re the DJing… some would assume that when you reach a certain level that ‘bigger is better’, that you’d want to just play big places. Is that the case or do you like to play smaller clubs too?

F: I love playing small clubs.The thing is with them that you get a totally different emotion as a DJ. You feel more as one with the crowd, you’re kind of in it together. Whereas at a festival you’re like a fucking conductor. You’ve got these waves of people in front of you. I love in a small place playing something dark and nasty or soulful, and you feel the emotion. I mean yeah you can get that feeling at a festival but it’s different. If I had to give one up I could never choose though.

DB: People talk about you with a huge amount of respect, people like Bridge and also Bailey who, when I asked ‘who else has the BIG vibe of an Andy C or a Goldie or a Hype etc’ he said that you did. So who influenced you and shaped you?